News COVID-19 pandemic

[Urwumpe]

I wonder why is there so little deaths in Germany compared to Spain, both got the same number of cases, no?

No idea, but Spain has already almost 50% more cases than Germany. Its also a matter of demographics, like in Italy, where the population is generally older than in Germany and thus had more severe cases with older persons.

 

[Mojave]

They're finally starting to shutdown restaurants, small stores, gyms, and other large gathering centers/businesses in my town in Florida. Fast food joints are sticking open for takeout only, but it's starting to feel pretty dead in my area. Little late for the party.

 

[dbeachy1]

Just read about something else "going around" today, and I love it!

People Hang Up Christmas Lights to Try Bring Some Cheer During Social Distancing

As people worldwide participate in social distancing or self-quarantining in an effort to slow the spread of the novel coronavirus, some folks are putting back up their Christmas lights in an effort to bring some holiday magic to the picture.

Sports broadcaster Lane Grindle posted the idea on his Twitter on Sunday. “What if we all put our Christmas lights back up,” he posed to his followers. “Then we could get in the car and drive around and look at them. That seems like a fair social distancing activity.”

[ame="https://twitter.com/rhodyknowsbest/status/1239691417058004992"]Mike Griffin on Twitter: "My youngest son was bored today and said, "can we put Christmas lights on our tree outside to cheer us up?" Great idea buddy. Lights are on tonight as a sign of hope and the sweet mind of my 10 year old. #Rhodeisland #hope #lovemysons #Christmas #Cumberland… https://t.co/EeyCY2GRog"[/ame]

A bunch more examples are in the article here

EDIT:
Check out the #CoronaKindness hashtag on Twitter.

 

[Buck Rogers]

1847 new cases and 112 new deaths in France. 50% of the 1,525 patients currently in intensive care are under 60 years old

Source: https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/

 

[C3PO]

It looks like the number of new cases are tailing off for now, even with the large number of tests performed. Almost 4% of the population has been tested.

On a personal note, my sister went into quarantene today. One of her patients tested positive, and they don't take any chances with hospital staff.

 

[Sunhillow]

The situation in USA starts looking bad!
From 7700 cases on march 18th to > 24000 now. Take care of yourselves!

 

[Thunder Chicken]

The situation in USA starts looking bad!
From 7700 cases on march 18th to > 24000 now. Take care of yourselves!

A lot of that is simply increased testing frequency. They are slowly figuring out that it is more widespread than originally believed.


Wife's mother apparently caught COVID-19 some days ago while traveling to Israel, but she can't get tested due to lack of tests. Three of her travel mates were confirmed to be COVID-19 positive. Her father was exposed and is in self-imposed quarantine, no symptoms.

 

[Nikogori]

I've been writing a blog about how to play orbiter for years. Suddenly more people come to my blog and actually play orbiter for no reason...

I guess they are students?
Coronavirus: Japan to close all schools to halt spread

 

[Linguofreak]

A lot of that is simply increased testing frequency. They are slowly figuring out that it is more widespread than originally believed.

Of note is that the number of deaths is not increasing nearly as fast as the number of infections.

 

[Urwumpe]

Of note is that the number of deaths is not increasing nearly as fast as the number of infections.

Well, there should be about 8 days delay....

 

[Notebook]

The Italian region of Lombardy has introduced stricter measures in a bid to tackle the spread of coronavirus.
Under the new rules announced late on Saturday, sport and physical activity outside, even individually, is banned. Using vending machines is forbidden.
The move comes as Italy reported nearly 800 coronavirus deaths on Saturday and saw its toll for the past month reach 4,825, the highest in the world.
Lombardy is the worst-affected region in the country with 3,095 deaths.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-51991972

 

[Urwumpe]

Why does France have 450 deaths according to the ECDC, they have a third less cases than Germany? Different ways to attribute the deaths to a cause?

---------- Post added at 10:19 ---------- Previous post was at 10:16 ----------

The German COVID-19 dashboard lists 18610 cases now in Germany and just 55 deaths.

Number of new infections is again dropping (+1.948, compared to +2958 on Friday), stronger than the expected weekend effect (less new cases are reported during the weekend). We will see on monday, how the situation really changed.

---------- Post added at 11:32 ---------- Previous post was at 10:19 ----------

OK, the lethality of COVID-19 directly relates to the number of intensive care beds in a country:

Country | ICU beds/1000 ppl
Germany|6
Lithuania|5.5
Austria|5.5
Belgium|5
Slovakia|4.9
Poland|4.8
Hungary|4.3
Slovenia|4.2
Czech Republic|4.1
Luxembourg|3.7
Greece|3.6
Estonia|3.5
Latvia|3.3
Portugal|3.3
France|3.1
Netherlands|2.9
Finland|2.8
Ireland|2.8
Italy|2.6
Spain|2.4
Denmark|2.4
UK|2.1
Sweden|2

Source: https://www.euronews.com/2020/03/19/covid-19-how-many-intensive-care-beds-do-member-states-have


This differs a lot from the data published in Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_hospital_beds


But the trend remains.



It is also funny that the USA and Turkey claim to have the highest number of ICU-CCB beds per capita, while both have far less normal hospital beds than others.



As I understand the difference, CCBs are specialized on coronary diseases, but otherwise function the same as ICU, so many countries actually might have a higher number of ICU beds than the more specialized CCB beds.

 

[Fabri91]

This would be coherent with the fact that a large part of the healthcare response here has centered on bringing new ICU beds online as fast as possible.

 

[Notebook]

Australia is shutting down non-essential services as coronavirus cases rise rapidly in the country.
Pubs, clubs, gyms, cinemas and places of worship will be shut from midday on Monday, while restaurants and cafes will have to switch to takeaway only.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced the restrictions after a national cabinet meeting.
The number of cases in Australia has risen sharply in recent days, reaching 1,315.
New South Wales (NSW), home to Sydney, is the worst-affected state with 533 confirmed cases. Victoria, of which Melbourne is the capital, has 296 cases, while Queensland has 259.

That's what you get for going to the beach...

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-australia-51992357

 

[tl8]

That's what you get for going to the beach...

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-australia-51992357

The messaging here has been horrific. Not 1 week before, the PM announced that we was going to the football. He decided not to because "the media might misconstrue it".


That said, the right things are happening, but not as efficiently as they could have been.



Full disclosure, I did in-fact go to the beach on Saturday, but I picked a quiet one and was very cognisant of staying 2m away from everyone. Also, last time in quite a while I think.

 

[Notebook]

Its still taking quite awhile to sink in here. Lots of people were out and about on Saturday in various leisure areas.
The National Trust is closing its houses, parks, gardens and woodlands.

Still panic buying here I'm ashamed to say, our two local food-stores are stripped bare. On-line food delivery is three weeks now, used to be 1-2 days.

Summary
Cases pass 300,000 with more than 13,000 deaths around the world; 93,000 people have recovered
Australia to close pubs, clubs, cinemas, casinos, nightclubs and places of worship
Sport and physical activity outside are banned in Italy's worst hit region of Lombardy
The move comes after Italy reported nearly 800 coronavirus deaths on Saturday
Britons are warned the spread of the virus is "accelerating" and they must avoid social contact
More than a billion people in India asked to observe a 14-hour long curfew to test the country's preparedness

 

[Ripley]

This morning I woke up and I saw a whatsapp message from a friend (a dear girlfriend I must say, but one that believes a little too much in the alternative vision of the world) that made me very angry. There was a YT video of one of those conspiracy theory fanboys driving around in Rome trying to lure people outside their flats, telling to

WAKE UP! don't believe what the government say, it's all fake news, where are all the deaths the tv talks about, Brescia province was the one with most people vaccinated just few years ago and now look what happpens, it's an experiment with chem trails, smartworking from home is a sociological experiment, the "Strong Powers" are poisoning their own citizens, there was a biological weapon tested, the new 5G cellphone system is to blame, Wuhan is full of 5G, don't get the next Covid-19 vaccine...

And all that unbearable, revolting, contradictory garbage. I mean, the guy was really full of

Edit: sorry, I know conspiracy theorists don't have a house here on OF, I was just so ------ off by this message from a friend (who knows that I don't follow those theories) that I had to shout and let it out! We argued over it on the phone for a couple of hours and then I let go. Normal reasonings are just impossible with them.

 

[Urwumpe]

Understandable. Would I ever meet such a dude here, you can be absolutely sure that my fist will accelerate into his face. Those idiots are KILLING people.

That is no harmless fun. I can laugh about flat earth theories and moon hoaxers. But fun ends where people will die.

I will now leave my apartment for a small walk outside. Its Sunday, its sunny - and Wolfsburg is in self-isolation, no more people hanging out outside in groups.

 

[Sunhillow]

In Germany, there is a special kind of such idiot, some Dr. Wodarg. He once was pulmonologist (?), later the leader of public health department in the city of Flensburg. So he has some kind of reputation. Now even his fellow party members warn from him.

He insists on his alternate fact, SARS-CoV2 is no more dangerous than other corona viruses. Totally ignoring that this is a new one, unknown to our immune system and being highly infectious. He would need some really punchy disputation. :beathead:

 

[GLS]

Meanwhile in Portugal, quarantine during the state of emergency:
[ame="https://twitter.com/MiguelRibbeiro/status/1241718828456914944"]https://twitter.com/MiguelRibbeiro/status/1241718828456914944[/ame]